Tag 38 - Alp2Ocean Trail (Part II)

The night at Lake Pukaki was incredibly cold. After a day of cycling in the tent, I could feel the temperature drop to 0 degrees and a real 3 degrees. I was relieved when the sun rose and it got a little warmer. Over time, you actually get used to living with the sun. You go to bed earlier and wake up earlier.

After a hearty porridge breakfast, I headed off on some rough gravel pavement from this really great 'campsite'. Suddenly, while I couldn't avoid hitting a bump in the road, I realized something was wrong. I stumbled slightly. Both front bag mounts had broken off due to the bump. Fortunately, the remaining loose parts of the mount didn't get caught in the front wheel. So I needed a plan B for about 30 kilometers to the next settlement. I unscrewed the third mount, which was only for side stabilization, and attached it as the only mount to the horizontal crossbar. The rest had to be fixed by my two quick release skewers. And that held up incredibly well. But that meant I had to resign myself to avoiding the bike trail for the last 3 days and taking the highway instead. The rest of the day was really good to ride, the highway was relatively quiet. Overall, the highways on the South Island are much more relaxed to ride on a bike. You can clearly feel the difference in population density here.

Coming from the Alpine foothills, there were quite a few meters of elevation to cover. After about 95 kilometers, I reached my planned destination in the afternoon. It was a 'basic campsite' at Lake Waitaki, which was particularly cheap. However, the night was a bit creepy, as I was probably alone on this huge campsite. There were at least 100 caravans, some of them very run-down. The campsite stretched for more than a kilometer along the water. And no one was in sight. So I set up my tent and took a brief dip in the lake, which was really cold. Tomorrow, I'll be heading to Duntroon via Kurow.